Patterns of time use in Tanzania: how to make public investment in ...

Table 3.2: Average time spent on disaggregated work activities in a day by
sex 4
(1) Employment for establishments
Activity
6
Mean minutes per day
All Female Male
Wage employment 23.6 10.5 37.9
Self-employment and home based work 17.9 12.9 23.4
Paid domestic and personal services produced by domestic work 9.7 5.8 14.0
Travel 9.1 5.2 13.4
Other 0.7 0.4 1.1
(2) Primary production activities not for establishments
Crop farming 76.3 71.8 81.2
Tending animals and hunting 20.0 7.1 33.9
Collecting firewood or dung 6.2 7.7 4.6
Collecting and waiting to collect water 15.7 22.1 8.7
Travel 47.9 50.0 45.7
Other 5.2 4.3 6.1
(3) Services for income and other production of goods not for establishments 6.3 6.9 5.7
(4) Household maintenance, management and shopping for own household
Activities related to food preparation 70.9 119.1 18.4
Cleaning house and care of clothes 19.9 28.3 10.8
Do it yourself 5.7 3.6 7.9
Chopping wood 2.8 3.7 1.8
Travel 8.9 9.7 8.1
Other 5.2 5.4 4.9
(5) Care for children, the sick, elderly and disabled for own household 23.9 35.4 11.5
(6) Community services and help to other households 8.0 7.2 8.9
Source: Calculations from the 2006 Tanzania TUS
Crop farming seems to be the activity taking up the largest amount of time
among productive activities (as conventionally classified by standard
statistical systems), with no significant differences between women and men
(about 72 minutes per day for women compared to 76 minutes for men). Men
spend on average more time than women in most other paid activities. To
note, however, that crop farming is not always a ‘paid’ activity (in the sense
that the person carrying out the work receives some monetary remuneration),
as it includes subsistence agriculture. Women, and girls, in particular, are
likely to be involved in home own food production.
Travel time related to primary production seems to be quite high for both
women and men (more than 45 minutes per day) while travel time related to
other activities is significantly smaller, but usually greater for men than for
women.
4 Refer to Annex 2 for a list of the aggregations carried out and corresponding activity codes.